London meet record for Alfred

On a warm, sunny afternoon at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred extended her reign over the women’s sprints, winning the 200m at the Novuna London Athletics Meet, a Wanda Diamond League event.

Alfred, the Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist in the half lap, maintained her purple patch of form in the race on Saturday. She ran 21.66 seconds, with the faintest of winds, just 0.1 metres per second, to break her own meet record of 21.71 from last year.

In so doing, she left Olympic champion Gabby Thomas, double Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, and former World champion Dina Asher-Smith in her wake. Thomas, the American, ran 21.81 for second, 400m specialist and Bahamian Miller-Uibo produced 22.24 for third, and Asher-Smith of Great Britain ran a season best 22.28 in fourth.

A week after dropping a run of 21.51 to win in Monaco, Alfred was in total control at London Stadium. Her Monaco run made her the third-fastest woman ever and second-fastest in nearly 40 years. Her third race in seven days yielded her seventh triumph in as many races this year and evened the 200m all time series against Thomas at 3-3.

But the race was impressive in its own right, as Alfred pulled away on the home straight for the joint 15th quickest run ever over the distance. She is one of only eight women ever to have gone faster.

“I am happy I won one [a race] again. I am healthy, so I couldn’t be happier. Right now, I am in a good place mentally and physically,” said Alfred post-race.

“I’m not going to lie, I didn’t want to run today, but my coach was like, ‘It is our last race for a while, we can go home and get to Saint Lucia, too’. I am here, I did it and I won, so I am very happy with how it went today.”